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In New Home, Exploratorium Widens Its Interactive Appeal
From ACM Opinion

In New Home, Exploratorium Widens Its Interactive Appeal

The Exploratorium science museum, which reopened Wednesday on a new nine-acre campus by the San Francisco Bay, is striking for how closely it has hewed to its quirky...

More Cracks ­ndermine the Citadel of Tv Profits
From ACM Opinion

More Cracks ­ndermine the Citadel of Tv Profits

For the longest time in the media business, the concept of the bundle has been foundational.

The Child, the Tablet, and the Developing Mind
From ACM Opinion

The Child, the Tablet, and the Developing Mind

I recently watched my sister perform an act of magic.

From ACM Opinion

Googling You

The settlement last week between a group of state attorneys general and Google over the company’s improper data collection from home wireless networks shows the...

A Museum's Games Are Not on Pedestals
From ACM Opinion

A Museum's Games Are Not on Pedestals

Video games, as their name suggests, combine the ancient human practice of formal play with moving pictures, a younger form.

The Next Frontier Is Inside Your Brain
From ACM Opinion

The Next Frontier Is Inside Your Brain

The Obama administration is planning a multiyear research effort to produce an "activity map" that would show in unprecedented detail the workings of the human,...

Calling Out the Robocaller
From ACM Opinion

Calling Out the Robocaller

Last month, the Haggler was sitting at home when the phone rang.

With Playstation 4, Sony Aims For Return to Glory
From ACM Opinion

With Playstation 4, Sony Aims For Return to Glory

For the Sony Corporation, a tech industry also-ran, the moment of reckoning is here.

Why We Love Beautiful Things
From ACM Opinion

Why We Love Beautiful Things

Great design, the management expert Gary Hamel once said, is like Justice Potter Stewart's famous definition of pornography—you know it when you see it.

The Trouble With Online College
From ACM Opinion

The Trouble With Online College

Courses delivered solely online may be find for highly skilled, highly motivated people, but they are inappropriate for struggling students who make up a significant...

The Origins of 'big Data': An Etymological Detective Story
From ACM Opinion

The Origins of 'big Data': An Etymological Detective Story

Words and phrases are fundamental building blocks of language and culture, much as genes and cells are to the biology of life.

A Fuzzy and Shifting Line Between Hacker and Criminal
From ACM Opinion

A Fuzzy and Shifting Line Between Hacker and Criminal

In January 2011, I was assigned to cover a hearing in Newark, where Daniel Spitler, then 26, stood accused of breaching AT&T's servers and stealing 114,000 email...

Talking, Walking Objects
From ACM Opinion

Talking, Walking Objects

Meeting Simon for the first time was one of the most sublime experiences I've had. With every coy head nod, casual hand wave and deep eye gaze, I felt he already...

Many Hands Make Fractals Tactile
From ACM Opinion

Many Hands Make Fractals Tactile

Human beings are born with an innate capacity to learn languages. Yet while mathematics is the language of pattern and form, many people struggle to acquire even...

Guns, Maps and Data That Disturb
From ACM Opinion

Guns, Maps and Data That Disturb

Should data have a conscience?

From ACM Opinion

Sneaky Apps That Track Cellphones

A perversion of smartphone technology called "stalking apps"—precise, secretive trackings of the movements of cellphone users—is increasingly a matter of national...

Red Pill, Blue Pill: Is the ­niverse Just a Giant Computer Simulation?
From ACM Opinion

Red Pill, Blue Pill: Is the ­niverse Just a Giant Computer Simulation?

I've started making my way (skeptically) through Ray Kurzweil’s How to Create a Mind, and at the recommendation of a friend, I've also started keeping tabs on ...

Opening the Doors to the Life of Pi
From ACM Opinion

Opening the Doors to the Life of Pi

For those of us who have been intoxicated by the powers and possibilities of mathematics, the mystery isn't why that fascination developed but why it isn't universal...

From ACM Opinion

I Am Not Big Brother

I've grown accustomed to reading inaccurate accounts of my day job. I'm in political data.

Best Inventions of the Year 2012
From ACM Opinion

Best Inventions of the Year 2012

That's not Photoshop.
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